Study Abroad Reflection 3

Prompt 3: Refect on Michael Roth's "Can Mathrew Crawford Deliver Us from Distraction"

Michael Roth’s article, “Can Matthew Crawford Deliver Us from Distraction” reviews Matthew Crawford’s book The World Beyond Your Head examines the affects of capitalism, individualism and education in the modern world. Crawford makes overarching assumptions about modern western society, but the most noteworthy part of his argument is the importance he places on finding one’s niche in society. Crawford argues that the role of the artist or the craftsperson gives one a sense of where they are in their community and their relationships to their environment, other people and the past and the present.

Crawford examination of one’s role in their community relates back to the conversations we’ve been having about identity since spring quarter. Crawford argues against the individualistic viewpoint of the modern western world to emphasize the importance of community to one’s present situation and identity. While we’ve been discussing identity and how it is multi-faceted, the conversation we had in class on Thursday made me reconsider the importance of other people, time and environment to identity as well. So many people and situations that have come before an individuals and will come after influence every aspect of one’s identity. This breaks down the western viewpoint the individual and reinforces the importance of realizing one’s identity in relation to other people and in relationships to your environment.

Many times the individualistic nature of western society gives people excuses not to consider the historical situations that lead to inequality in societies. Throughout this program, we have looked at the disadvantaged groups throughout German society, including Muslims (and other individual from migrant background), refugees and asylum seekers. While the German government and policies and unforgiving towards these groups and create a situation in which gaining equality within Germany is next to impossible, the historical situations that gave rise to the increased numbers of immigrants and refugees are mostly ignored and instead they are considered as individuals. In reality, these individuals are forced to emigrate from their homes because of economic, social and political situations created due to historical events (and many times actions taken by Western nations), and therefore need to be considered in relation to these events and not as individuals.

One of the most profound connections between the past and the present that brought greater numbers of immigrants to Germany, and that is directly related back to the actions taken by German government, is the Israel–Palestine conflict that in turn created much more unrest within the Middle East. While many other nations are also to blame for the unstable environment in the Middle East (including the United States), Germany also played a large role in the conflict due to its role in World War II. After thousands of Jews fled Germany and other parts of Europe to re-establish themselves in their historical home of Jerusalem (and other areas of Israel) conflict erupted around boundaries, borders and who has political/religious claim to what land. The conflict in the Middle East influenced many people to leave the area and move to Europe, also due to the increased economic issues in the area, and added to the large number of immigrants and those from migrant backgrounds. The German government does not consider the historical events they were very much apart of and how it lead to increased numbers of immigrants, and instead ignores their role in the increased number of emigrants from the area. This allows Germany to create unequal laws surrounding immigration and to treat each immigrant as an individual while ignoring the role the government played in created the situations that lead to emigration. Realizing and acknowledging this relationships was one of my favorite parts of this program so far. In my political sciences classes we focus on the importance of historical amnesia (and even instances of blowback) and how they are created by certain types of institutions and historical events. I had yet to consider the role of these in Germany and how they relate to the issue of immigration and I’m happy this reading and our discussion on Thursday opened my eyes to that fact.